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Morning Buzz: Busy Day At USC

It’s a busy day today for USC.

USC Pro Day is this morning at 8:30 a.m. and should be over by 11 a.m. It is closed to the public but all 32 NFL teams are expected to be in attendance.

It will be interesting to see what representatives the NFL teams send to USC with Georgia also having its Pro Day today. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and Falcons coach Raheem Morris are at Georgia Pro Day.

  • USC plays Rutgers tonight at 5:30 PT in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. All Big Ten Tournament games today will be on Peacock. That’s right, Peacock.
  • Mike Battle, an All-American defensive back and member of the 1967 national championship team, died last week of natural causes. He was 78.

He played varsity football at USC from 1966-68 and went to the Rose Bowl every season. The Trojans were 26-6-1 and won three conference titles during his three-year career. 

Battle intercepted 13 passes in his USC career, including five in 1967 and still ranks sixth overall in interceptions.

Battle was the Trojans’ punt return leader all three seasons and still holds the school record for most punts returned (99). He was the NCAA statistical champ in 1967 with 49 punt returns for 608 yard (12.4-yard average).

He was drafted by the New York Jets in 1969 and became teammates with Joe Namath. That led to an appearance in the 1970 film, “C.C. and Company,” which starred Namath and Ann-Margaret.

Before USC, Battle attended Lawndale High School.

Bob Klein, Steve Sogge, Mike Battle and O.J. Simpson perform a skit with “Coach” James Garner on Nov. 25, 1968 at the Sports Arena for The Bob Hope Show.

43 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: Busy Day At USC”

  3. –Battle was a boyish-looking guy built into a slight 180-pound body if he was soaking wet.

    Myth or truth– he and Tim Rossovich were best pals which figured since they both did not mind streaking the Row or jumping from their bed onto a board with protruding nails.

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    1. Agree that Battle was slightly built. Compare his frame in the phot to OJ Simpson. Can’t imagine Battle tackling OJ, then again few people ever did.

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    1. Cowardly Gabby loves corruption.DOGE exposing $312 million in loans to kids 11 and under is a gut-wrenching wake-up call—Trump patriots, this corruption’s a slap in our faces! These swamp rats are stealing from our future, handing out cash to toddlers while 75 million of us voted to drain this cesspool. Prosecute them now, or this grift never stops—Elon’s bloodhounds are on the scent, and we’re roaring for justice! The numbers are a sucker punch: $2.2 trillion in COVID relief, $280 billion looted—$312 million’s just the kid-sized tip of a filthy iceberg. Over 1,000 convictions already, yet 2 million illegals drain $150 billion yearly, and $350 billion’s blown on Ukraine while our kids get loans instead of schools. DOGE’s $2 trillion cuts—$1 billion daily from DEI scams—prove Trump’s right: lock up the thieves, not fund their fantasies. This isn’t oversight; it’s a crime syndicate! This is why MAGA’s fired up—Trump and Elon are our warriors, swinging at the corrupt elite who’d rob babies to line their pockets. No more excuses—jail time or nothing!

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      1. Normal Gabby: Read yesterday that a few months before Biden left office, the NIH gave 28 million to a former Biden advisor who purportedly had registered a vaccine company a year earlier. The company had no lab, no offices, no employees, no means to produce a vaccine ect. and the advisor had no experience in vaccines. The Biden corruption knows no bounds. This is criminal and needs to be investigated.

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      2. I’m sure they then turned around and kicked back 10% to the Big Guy. The real criminal got away with it and will never be prosecuted because he’s not mentally fit to stand trial. Hasn’t been for at least 5 or 6 years.

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      3. 80% OF THE LOANS IN QUESTION WERE ISSUED DURING TRUMP’S WATCH

        BAMMMMMMM……..ANOTHER MASSIVE C R O T C H KICK!

        TOOOOOOO EASY!

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      4. Why do you lie so much, Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts ? The vaccine company wasn’t founded until 2022!

        “During the final months of the Biden administration, the National Institutes of Health awarded $28 million to a mysterious venture-backed company called Vaccine Company Inc., a biomedical firm founded in 2022 whose chief financial officer happens to be one of former president Joe Biden’s top COVID advisers.”

        DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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      5. you’re confusing a loan with a federal grant……what a total dumb—–ass

        I see why you get zero respect

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      6. Even when confronted with the facts you still lie and move the goal posts,  Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts. You are pathetic!

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      2. Understandably, our nutcase doesn’t have anyone who cares about her enough to cover her face with a pillow, the way Chief did to McMurphy.

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    1. KAM:FOR FOUR YEARS THE SENILE JOE REGIME LIED AND THE PRESS HELPED!

      DON: We know that now, but there was a time when the media said all claims that Joe Biden was working from a virtual or fake Oval Office were considered to be ‘fake news.’ Now, with Trump White House adviser Alina Habba personally finding the fake Oval Office set and showing it to the public in a video, people are discovering the story all over again.

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  6. By the way, Battle’s 1966 team did not go to the Rose Bowl; SC was beat out by some YUCLA guy named Norm Dow as I recall

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    1. KAM: You Can’t Make This Up: UN Hypocrites Bulldoze Thousands of Acres of Amazon Rainforest for Four-Lane Highway to Climate Change Summit.

      DON: So let me get this straight: The Global Warmist cult is literally paving paradise, destroying nature all to build a highway so people can go to a climate change conference. https://bbc.com/news/articles/c9vy191rgn1o

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  7. Correction on reflection–

    The 1966 Battle team did go to the Rose Bowl despite YUCLA’s victory over them, and were they incensed!

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    1. We (the assorted misfits on third floor Trojan Hall—Figueroa side) took up a collection, purchased a wreath of wilted roses, and had them delivered to the entrance of Sproul Hall. We alerted the media and then drove over to watch the expressions on the UCLA students faces as the condolence wreath arrived. Priceless!

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      1. Grand! [Any chance of a repeat performance when their women’s basketball team gets eliminated before the Final Four]?

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  10. Mike Battle was released from the Jets in 1970, 55 years ago, and there is nothing written about what he did after that except for the fact that his wife and 7 children survive him

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      2. As a fellow city attorney used to say to people asking how her case went [after she got her ass kicked in court], “well, today was a qualified success.”

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